Since the start of the full-scale war, the Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk region) has invested $325 million in production, according to Oleg Krykavsky, the company’s director of government relations, at the conference “Ukrainian Export: Through Thorns to the EU,” organized by the publication Ukrainska Pravda.
According to him, AMKR operates in difficult conditions, with electricity prices in Ukraine significantly higher than in Europe, because in Ukraine, companies buy expensive electricity on the market a day in advance, while in a number of European Union countries, long-term contracts are in place and special state programs to support metallurgy are being introduced to stimulate economic growth.
In particular, there are special mechanisms for reducing the cost of electricity on the French market through nuclear power plants, and in Germany, there are plans to allocate €6.5 billion and introduce a number of additional measures, including regulating the upper price limit to €60 per MWh (although industry insists on a price of €50), while in Ukraine, prices are constantly rising and have already reached $180 per MWh. Therefore, the Ukrainian government must also implement similar solutions to preserve industrial potential and jobs.
“Despite the current challenges, we continue to invest: during the full-scale invasion, our investments amounted to more than $325 million. These include repairs, modernization, logistics, preparation for European standards, and future capital projects,” Krykavsky stated.
He added that the key tasks for AMKR remain unchanged: integration into the EU, investment in development, and support for Ukrainian production even in the most difficult times.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of long products in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, in particular, rebar and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle, with production capacities designed for an annual output of over 6 million tons of steel, more than 5 million tons of rolled products, and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron.
ArcelorMittal owns Ukraine’s largest mining and metallurgical complex, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Beryslav.
The Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk region) intends to reconstruct the coke chemical production (CCP) capture workshop complex – the ammonia-sulfate department.
According to materials available to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the planned activities include the reconstruction of the CCP capture workshop complex, which involves both the construction of new buildings and the phased complete replacement of external equipment located outside the buildings with new equipment.
It is specified that the technical solutions ensure the preservation of the existing technology for purifying coke oven gas from ammonia using a non-saturator method with a sulfuric acid solution to obtain ammonium sulfate, which is a commercial product.
The purpose of the reconstruction is to replace outdated and worn-out equipment with modern equipment, improve equipment productivity, and improve working conditions for workers. The planned activities will ensure the preservation of jobs for the enterprise’s workers.
The reconstruction project is planned to be implemented in three stages, with dismantling, phased construction of facilities, and relocation of engineering networks under operating conditions. The total built-up area of the facility is approximately 6,500 square meters.
The main technical and economic indicators of the planned activities after the reconstruction of the workshop are as follows: productivity of the ammonia-sulfate department for coke oven gas – 130,000-140,000 cubic meters/hour / 1,138,800-1,226,400 thousand square meters/year; volume of coke oven gas purified from ammonia – 130,000-140,000 cubic meters/hour / 1,138,800-1,226,400 thousand cubic meters/year; ammonium sulfate production volume – 6,772 tons/hour / 59,322.72 tons/year; heavy capture resin volume ~80 tons/month / ~960 tons/year.
The existing recirculation cycle of the capture workshop will be used to meet the recirculating water supply needs of the new ammonia-sulfate department.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of hot-rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, in particular, reinforcement bars and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle, with a production capacity of over 6 million tons of steel, more than 5 million tons of rolled products, and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron per year.
ArcelorMittal owns Ukraine’s largest mining and metallurgical complex, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Beryslav.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih’s Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant (AMKR, Dnipro region) has mastered the production of a new type of billets with a size of 160×160 mm in the continuous casting department of its converter shop to increase exports.
As reported in the corporate newspaper Metallurg, until recently, the department’s product mix was limited to 130×130 and 150×150 mm square billets. The new product was launched due to its economic advantages and export potential, as the 160×160 mm size is used by rolling mills in many countries.
The project was successfully implemented thanks to careful calculations, equipment modernization and well-coordinated teamwork. These products will enable the production of heavier rebar coils, which will reduce transportation costs and increase the company’s competitiveness.
The company explains that VBRS products are steel billets used in rolling mills to make rebar, wire rod, angles and other rolled products. And the billets themselves are in demand on the market.
“Rebar in coils is currently in demand on global markets. Our DS 250-4 mill produces bobbins in coils up to 2 tons. And 30 such coils can be placed in a railroad car, i.e. 60 tons. If we increase the weight of the coils, we can transport up to 67 tons of products in a railroad car. This means that we can save a lot of money on transportation, which is especially important given that transportation prices are rising. That’s why we needed more massive billets to produce heavier coils,” said Igor Smolev, Deputy Director of the Rolling Department for Technology and Quality.
In turn, Dmitry Terekhov, Director of the Iron and Steel Production Department, said that the second good reason to start manufacturing new products was that many rolling mills in the world, in particular in Germany and Poland, use 160×160 mm billets, so this is a very promising product right now.
“Together with the technical department, we explored the possibilities of producing the billets in demand and found that it was possible, despite the fact that our continuous casting machines (CCMs) were not designed for this. We decided to use CCM-1 because it produced only 150 mm squares, while the first and second machines produce both 150 mm and 130 mm. The first machine is also used for closed jet casting, so it is on this machine that we produce the vast majority of billets from high value-added steel grades (high-alloy, low-carbon, etc.),” Terekhov stated.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle and its production capacities are designed to produce over 6 million tons of steel, over 5 million tons of rolled products and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron annually.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
In 2024, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipro region) increased its rolled steel production by 72.1% compared to 2023, to 1 million 534,519 thousand tons from 891,438 thousand tons, and steel production by 69.9%, to 1 million 651,410 thousand tons from 971,846 thousand tons.
According to the company’s press release on Tuesday, pig iron production increased by 42.7% to 2 million 167.616 thousand tons from 1 million 519.183 thousand tons.
In addition, AMKR increased production of coke with 6% moisture by 48.5% to 1 million 254,743 thousand tons from 845,068 thousand tons, and iron ore concentrate by 71.7% to 7 million 820,682 thousand tons from 4 million 555,365 thousand tons. Iron ore production increased by 68.3% to 19 million 189.037 thousand tons from 11 million 401.600 thousand tons.
At the same time, it is noted that due to a number of problems, including a shortage of electricity supply, high electricity prices and the need to import a significant portion of it, as well as expensive logistics, and unfavorable price situation in the steel markets, AMKR was unable to break even in 2024.
In the middle of the year, the plant managed to temporarily achieve 50% utilization of its steelmaking capacity. The mining department operated at around 70-75% of pre-war production.
Mauro Longobardo, CEO of AMKR, stated that the war continues to affect all production-related processes.
“We have made every effort to achieve zero losses, we have done everything in our power to reduce costs within the company and optimize consumption. But this (breakeven – IF-U) did not happen for a number of reasons. The operation of one blast furnace and the fire at the coke oven battery due to blackout in the summer and its loss played a role here. In addition, costly logistics, unstable energy supply due to constant enemy attacks, a personnel crisis, depressed foreign markets where we can export our products – all this negatively affects our competitiveness and, accordingly, our financial results,” explained the CEO.
According to him, the plant’s business plan is focused on survival.
“So far, we are very cautious in our forecasts and realize that our results are far from the pre-war ones. We continue to invest only in a project that is strategically important for production – the construction of the Third Map tailings dump, the first phase of which we completed this year. For 2025, our goal remains the same: to be able to do it on our own without the financial assistance of the group that supports us in these difficult times. Despite all the challenges, AMKR remains in Ukraine and with Ukraine. We believe in the Victory and are ready to take part in the country’s recovery,” Longobardo summarized.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest rolled steel producer in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle and its production capacity is designed to produce over 6 million tons of steel, over 5 million tons of rolled products and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron annually.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
In 2024, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih’s Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant (AMKR, Dnipro region) paid UAH 6.6 billion in taxes and fees to budgets of all levels, up more than 60% from the total tax payments for 2023 (UAH 4.1 billion).
According to the plant’s press release on Wednesday, UAH 727 million of the budget payments for the past year went to the state budget and UAH 3 billion to local budgets. The company also paid almost UAH 830 million in unified social tax and UAH 2.1 billion in value added tax on imports of raw materials.
In the structure of taxes and fees in 2024, the largest amount was paid in land tax. Thus, the company paid almost UAH 2.2 billion in land tax to the local community of Kryvyi Rih, which is UAH 0.8 billion more than in 2023. This tax has become the main component of the growth in payments to local budgets.
Pavlo Zadorozhny, Chief Financial Officer of AMKR, emphasized that the company remains a reliable partner of the state despite the challenges of wartime and the company’s difficult financial situation.
“In 2024, the company tried to break even and carried out significant internal work to reduce costs. However, the instability of energy supply due to enemy attacks, high electricity tariffs and the need to import it, expensive logistics, and the unfavorable situation on world markets, unfortunately, created additional obstacles for us. For the third year in a row, we have been operating at a loss,” Zadorozhny stated.
According to him, despite these problems, AMKR continues to work on improving its operational and financial performance to ensure the future development of the company and its staff, as well as stable tax revenues to the state budget and local communities.
As reported, in 2023, AMKR paid UAH 4.1 billion in taxes and duties to the budgets of all levels, which is 2.1 times less than the total amount of tax payments in 2022 (UAH 8.8 billion). Of this amount, UAH 243 million went to the state budget and UAH 2.2 billion to local budgets. In addition, almost UAH 751 million of unified social tax and UAH 856 million of value added tax on imports of raw materials were paid.
In 2022, AMKR reduced its tax payments by 39.7% due to the decline in production as a result of the war – to UAH 8.8 billion in taxes and fees compared to UAH 14.6 billion in 2021.
In 2021, AMKR paid UAH 14.6 billion in taxes and duties to the budgets of all levels, which was 2.3 times higher than the total amount of tax payments in 2020 (UAH 6.4 billion).
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest rolled steel producer in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
The shareholders of Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipro region) have renewed the composition of the Supervisory Board.
According to the company’s announcement in the NSSMC’s information disclosure system, the shareholders considered personnel issues at the general meeting on December 28, 2023.
At the same time, the meeting terminated the powers of the members of the Supervisory Board, re-electing for a new term the CTO and Chief Strategy Officer of ArcelorMittal Clarke David George, Chief of Staff of the CEO and Chairman of the ArcelorMittal Group Anna Escobedo, Independent Director Sergey Ishchuk, Independent Director Oleg Lagodienko and CFO of ArcelorMittal Europe; Vijay Goyal, CEO of ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions; and Vijay Goyal, CEO of ArcelorMittal CIS. Also, Sonya Neffati, Head of Organizations and Human Resources at ArcelorMittal Luxembourg, was elected to the Supervisory Board.
In addition, the shareholders terminated the powers of the members of the audit committee and did not elect new ones in connection with the liquidation of this controlling body.
As reported, at the meeting, AMKR shareholders planned to approve the results of the company’s financial and economic activities in 2021 and 2022, determine the procedure for repayment of losses, and amend the company’s charter and bylaws.
AMKR ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 49 billion 9.104 million, while in 2021 it made a net profit of UAH 25 billion 216.068 million. The outstanding loss by the end of 2022 amounted to UAH 3 billion 283.553 million. The value of assets halved to UAH 52 billion 682.761 million from UAH 105 billion 800.975 million in 2021.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest rolled steel producer in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
Mittal Steel Corporation acquired a 93.02% stake in Kryvorizhstal at an open tender on October 24, 2005 for UAH 24.2 billion at a starting price of UAH 10 billion, after which the plant was renamed Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih and later ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih.
According to the company, Arcelor Mittal Duisburg GmbH (Germany) owns 95.128% of its shares.
The authorized capital of the plant is UAH 3 billion 859.533 million.
